Emerson String Quartet returns for memorable performance

The Emerson String Quartet returns to Memorial Chapel for
David Finckel’s final appearance at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 28 as part of the
Union College Concert Series.

The quartet will begin the program with Mozart’s Quartet in
D Major, K. 499 “Hoffmeister”
followed by Alban Berg’s difficult Lyric
Suite. They close the program with Dvorák’s fiery Quartet in D Minor, Op. 34.

The Emerson String Quartet stands alone among string
quartets with a long list of achievements over three decades: more than 30 recordings
since 1987, nine Grammy Awards (including an unprecedented two for Best
Classical Album), three Gramophone Awards and the prestigious Avery Fisher
Prize—a first for a chamber ensemble. The group has performed cycles of the
complete Beethoven, Bartók, Mendelssohn and Shostakovich string quartets in the world’s
musical capitals, from New York to London and Vienna. Formed in 1976, they took
its name from the poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The Emerson
String Quartet is comprised of violinists Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer who alternate
in the first chair position, with Lawrence Dutton on viola and David Finckel on
cello. Appearing at the series annually for over 25 years, they are making its
final Union performance with Finckel, who is leaving the group in May 2013. British
cellist Paul Watkins will join them in the fall.